Mr Fraser's main answer seems to be to free up the labour market (read: reduce minimum wages) so that tax-avoiding employers can make more profit. Seems like something the captain would say.

Max Jensen, Chifley

While Zed Seselja ("CFMEU calls seen as a 'scare' campaign", July 16, p2) may have a point about the timing of the pre-recorded messages sent by the CFMEU on Tuesday being a distraction from the Royal Commission into unions, this should not obscure the fact that the China Australia Free Trade Agreement does provide that for projects worth more than $150 million. Chinese workers can be hired to work on these sites with no requirement to adhere to Australian wages or conditions or to ensure that no Australian workers are available.

One such a project would be the Shenhua Watermark coal mine approved by the federal government, of which Senator Seselja is a member. This decision for a coal mine on the Liverpool Plains has been slammed by Alan Jones, usually a friend of the Coalition, as "disgraceful" and "beyond belief" ("Alan Jones slams nod for mine", July 16, p4). What also needs to be taken into account is that terms of the ChAfta allow for Investor State Dispute Settlement giving any Chinese corporation (and many are State-owned or controlled) the right to sue the Australian Government in a "court" that is outside any Australian jurisdiction, if that corporation believes that any decision taken in Australia hurts its profits or future profits.

The Trans Pacific Partnership between Pacific rim nations including the US and Australia that is not yet signed off contains similar ISDS provisions. Forget about the CFMEU and think of the future of this democratic country of ours that is being traded away under so-called free trade agreements.

Ann Darbyshire, Gunning, NSW

Negative gearing has a plus and minus factor embedded in it. The plus is that it encourages people looking for an investment to buy or build houses to let. The negative side is that the battlers cannot compete at auctions and it gives those with high incomes lucrative profits.

To make the system fairer, making low to medium-priced existing properties ineligible for negative gearing would let first home buyers into the market.

Negative gearing would apply to any new housing, no matter its price, as long as it is on the rental market for 10 years.

Howard Carew, Isaacs

Treasurer Joe Hockey ("Treasurer won't consider negative gearing review", July 16, p5) was right to reject the Reserve Bank's suggested "review" of negative gearing; that is, when an investor borrows to purchase a house, and the interest and other annual costs exceeds the rent he receives, so that the resultant loss reduces his/her overall net income (and thus the tax payable). Hockey says that, as a matter of principle, individuals "should be able to deduct the expenses of ... an investment against their primary income".

A clearer defence of negative gearing would have perhaps been something like this: It's a basic taxation policy that the taxpayer's overall net income is what is taxed, without regard to the outcome of individual activities and/or investments that the taxpayer is engaged in.

Anything else would be quite impractical. For example, how on earth could you logically tax the profits a supermarket makes on products A, B, and C, without having regard to the losses the supermarket incurred on product D that it discounted to bring customers into the store?

R.S. Gilbert, Braddon

I suspect that Ben Wright's article on the Greek crisis ("Collective aversion to Grexit is still baffling", Times2, July 16, p5) represents a passable analysis of the problem Greeks have engineered virtually all by themselves. Nonetheless, would some erudite person with a more advanced dictionary than my 1995 Concise Oxford please enlighten me regarding the author's employment of "amaroidal" to describe a defeat; and "doosra" used to describe an inevitably uninviting fate. And furthermore, why Mr Wright would "catalyse" rather than "catalogue" the various elements of the mess?

Patrick Jones, Griffith

It's interesting to read Tim Herne and John Simmons' take (Letters, July 16) on my letter (July 1) about Australia's minute population in the overall scheme of things. Never did I state that Australia should sit back and do nothing.

All I said was that we – as a nation – would not make any definitive difference to our planet's climate change, given our numbers. Indeed, I believe we should set as many targets as possible and rid our country of coal-fired energy generation as soon as possible, but that will not make a scintilla of difference to the world's problems, if the rest of the world does not join us at the same level.

Dave Jeffrey, Farrer

Abbott's COALition government has instituted a scheme to make payments to businesses which suffered an adverse financial impact as a result of the Rudd government's home insulation program. This scheme has been vigorously and recently advertised.

As this same Abbott government is now acting to damage significant and successful parts of the renewable energy industry (wind power and rooftop solar cell providers), I wonder if businesses damaged as a result of this government action will be offered payments for their losses akin to those offered to those who suffered losses under the HIP.

B. Cox, Bruce

Mark Farrell's views (Letters, July 13) on the article on litigation involving building defects ("Builder sued for $1.3m over apartment defects", July 9, p6) highlights a long-running and often serious problem for buyers of new apartments in Canberra.

He correctly identified unscrupulous builders as part of the problem, but the real cause of the prevalence of building defects lies in the serious erosion of the rights of buyers of apartments by successive ACT governments. Developers will always cut costs unless there is a proper framework to make them build things properly. At present, all power lies with the developers and builders, and owners are left with the option of paying to repair defects left behind, or engaging in expensive litigation.

Two actions are necessary to re-establish some equilibrium between the rights of buyers of units and developers/builders. Firstly, the provision in the ACT Units Title Act for exemption of statutory insurance for buildings over three stories needs to be removed. As more apartment complexes go above that level, it is ludicrous that their buyers are second-class citizens with less protection than buyers in smaller complexes.

Secondly, the building certification system needs to be totally overhauled, as it serves no useful purpose. Apart from being hopelessly conflicted (the builders/developers appoint the certifiers), the certifiers themselves do not appear to have responsibility for fundamental aspects of building quality (such as ensuring effective waterproofing arrangements for top floor balconies which form the roofs of apartments below).

One possible solution to this multimillion-dollar problem was suggested by Ross Taylor, an engineer specialising in water ingress problems in apartment buildings, at a recent Owners Corporation Network forum. His solution to the problem was the appointment of a "clerk of works" to each development project to supervise each stage of the development, from architectural planning to completion, and co-ordinating each stage of the building process.

This arrangement, the cost of which could be incorporated into the purchase price of the units, would potentially save owners corporations millions of dollars in rectification costs, after the completion of the development. The cost of repairing defective work is many times the cost of doing it right the first time.

Peter Grills, owners corporation, The Waterfront Apartments, Kingston

The O'Loughlins (Letters, July 16) are incorrect in stating that "some people in Canberra have more rights than others."

Under the Human Rights Act (2004), if they so choose, the O'Loughlins also have the right to stay at home and soak up welfare payments without fear of being "forced to work".

They can also deface property and squawk filth as part of their "freedom of expression".

They can even expect, or demand, a fresh new public house after leaving many previous ones in putrid and degraded states.

It would not surprise me at all if the immature, entitlement-obsessed "progressives" and lofty academics of this town eventually grant the roaming pit bulls mentioned by the O'Loughlins to their right of freedom of movement, too.

When will our community stop this downward spiral of importing, empowering and then coddling absolute basket cases?

Pat Bacon, Hackett

Michael and Christine O'Loughlin's concern for public housing is justified. A friend of mine lives in public housing in O'Connor and the sewerage pipes are blocked. Imagine my horror when I noticed the government had supplied her with an outdoor portaloo! She is elderly and has been seriously ill.

I wonder how many politicians get up in these freezing nights to go to an outdoor toilet? Many government houses look very neglected and need checking for white ants and repairs and garden maintenance.

Penelope Upward, O'Connor

TJ Farquahar (Letters, July 14) may seek to deride the notion that kangaroos suffer psychological trauma; but nothing is achieved by these comments except to demonstrate the same human chauvinism towards animals that has become normalised by Greens and Labor ministers in the ACT government in recent years. My 15 years working closely with individual kangaroos recovering from trauma and various peer-reviewed research publications in this area might be seen as irrelevant in the chauvinistic world of Farquahar. However, a simple Google search in the fields of neuroscience and neuropsychology with regard to animals will show huge evidence that all mammals, birds and some sea life have the same neural substrates as humans and that kangaroos, like elephants, primates, parrots and a whole host of animals, do suffer emotional loss and trauma. Failing all of that, I suggest TJ Farquahar talk to empathetic dog and cat owners in his own street to find they will have observed the same.

Professor Steve Garlick, Bungendore, NSW

It is arrogant to consider that humans are the only animals that experience emotion and psychological stress (see Cambridge Declaration). The bond between mother and baby is very strong, whether in a human, elephant, whale or kangaroo. There is no doubt that the infant kangaroo joeys orphaned during Canberra's recent kangaroo cull would have been severely traumatised through loss of association prior to their death due to exposure or predation.

Perhaps TJ Farquahar has only ever been exposed to kangaroos via stuffed toys and TV programs, or perhaps is just totally devoid of the ability to empathise with others.

Dr Rosemary Austen, Kingston

Peter Neilsen (Letters, July 14) and numerous others protest vehemently at one aspect of rural industry, wind farms. Yet for at least two centuries the use of wind and water power in the crowded English country scene have been regarded as an enhancement of the treasured view. From Country Life, that most Conservative periodical: "The barley mown, they toil and build /Till loft and store to brim are filled /Till wheat is wind or water milled /And sail and wheel and grindstone stilled."

The utilitarian craft-made objects are preserved, whether used or not. Yet here in Australia, the far more elegant wind farms that gently provide essential needs are derided.

One can only assume that this illogical view is pushed by industrial self-interest.

Jack Palmer, Watson

TO THE POINT

The Canberra Times wants to hear from you in short bursts. Email views in 50 words or fewer to

letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au

RICH MAN, POOR MAN

You don't have to be the "suppository of all wisdom" to work out the radical right's thinking on taxation. On the one hand they want to raise the GST, which will have a negative effect on the not so well off in society and yet on the other hand take no action to remove the negative gearing benefits for the rich in society. Surely that's crystal clear.

C. Lathbury, Fadden

CHINA BOMB MYSTERY

As if it is not enough having Tony Abbott ramping up fear in the populace, we now have a "defence" report saying that Canberra is in reach of the People's Army of China. Why would China want to bomb Canberra? They already own half the country, with the active support of the Abbott government. The report is co-written by Michael Green, a former " security adviser" to George Bush. Says it all.

Richard Keys, Ainslie

CALL OF THE WILD

Don't blame cats. Blame the god who created them as carnivores and humans who dumped them in the bush, while themselves destroying many more wild creatures, great and small.

Meta Sterns, Yarralumla

'CYCLICAL' SOLUTION

House of Representatives Speaker Bronwyn Bishop seems to have joined the conga line of Coalition MPs who, when called out, have apparently paid back taxpayers' money allegedly used for private travel to attend functions including, it seems, weddings and Liberal party fundraisers.

Forget helicopters and airbuses – on yer bikes, the lot of you!

Annie Lang, Kambah

A Facebook report claims that Chris Dewhirst, the man who in 1991 completed the first hot-air balloon ride over Mount Everest, is looking for two passengers for his second attempt: it costs more than $2.6 million per person.

Go Bronnie, this is your opportunity!

Adrian Gibbs, Yarralumla

Just when the PM thought he was in front on the scoreboard, his playmaker in the House commits a foul! Time for another "captain's pick" perhaps? We can only hope.

Peter Funnell, Farrer

TALK THE WALK

Thanks to Duncan Graham ("Best security lies in accord", Times2, July 16, p4), we have been reminded that people-to-people contacts between Indonesia and Australia are essential to long-term peace in our region.

The government needs to focus more on enhancing these links by removing the bureaucratic barriers.

David Purnell, Florey

Email: letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au. Send from the message field, not as an attached file. Fax: 6280 2282. Mail: Letters to the Editor, The Canberra Times, PO Box 7155, Canberra Mail Centre, ACT 2610.

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